At 22, Obada and his now wife had moved out of the city and he was working as a warehouse security guard.

From there, he says there was more chance of him “winning the lottery three times and getting hit by lightning four times” than making it to the NFL.

He bumped into an old friend who was playing American football for the London Warriors and invited Obada to come along.

After just five games at amateur level, one of the Warriors’ coaches – future Super Bowl winner Aden Durde – helped secure a try-out with the Dallas Cowboys and Obada joined their practice squad in 2015.

He spent time with two other teams and “poured all his anger” into making it. When the defensive end earned his NFL debut with the Carolina Panthers in 2018, he had an instant impact – claiming a sack, an interception and forcing a fumble.

“That really put me on the map,” he says. “There was a lot of pent-up frustration from all the rejections that led to that moment.

“Then playing for the Panthers in London in 2019 was a dream come true, to play in front of my friends and family on home soil, to show everybody what I’d been working towards.”

Obada went on to play for the Buffalo Bills and Washington Commanders, racking up 80 games and 15 quarterback sacks, tackling the likes of Super Bowl winners Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Matt Stafford and Jalen Hurts.

“I didn’t get [Patrick] Mahomes or Lamar [Jackson], they were two that I really wanted to, but that list is alright,” he jokes.

Obada never reached a Super Bowl and has wondered might have been in the 2021 season, when his Buffalo team lost an epic play-off game against Mahomes’ Kansas City Chiefs in overtime.

Obada was also on Washington’s practice squad when they went within one win of the big game in 2025.

Crystal Palace have had a verbal bid for midfielder Lamine Camara rejected by Ligue 1 side Monaco.

The Senegal international, 22, was the subject of an offer reportedly worth more than £35m, which would have made him one of the most expensive signings in the club’s history.

Camara has already made 49 appearances for his country and featured at this summer’s World Cup.

He joined Monaco from Metz in 2024 for a reported fee of 15m euros (£12.8m), having moved to France after excelling in several prestigious Senegalese youth academies.

Palace have made four signings this summer, bringing in striker Evann Guessand on loan from Aston Villa, winger Dwight McNeil from Everton in a swap deal involving Brennan Johnson, and former Arsenal defender Takehiro Tomiyasu on a free transfer this week.

The arrivals followed the signing of Oscar Mingueza from Celta Vigo by Palace’s new manager Pierre Sage, who replaced Oliver Glasner, now at Nottingham Forest, during the summer.

The Eagles travel to Freiburg for their final pre-season friendly before opening their Premier League campaign away at Everton on Saturday, 22 August.

New Test captain Joe Root has abolished the midnight curfew imposed on the England team under predecessor Ben Stokes.

It was introduced during the winter after a number of late-night incidents on the tours of New Zealand and Australia.

Following the first Test of the home summer – a win against New Zealand – Stokes broke the curfew in a nightclub in London, sparking a series of events that eventually led to his retirement from international cricket.

But before Root’s first Test back in charge, against Pakistan at Headingley next week, he has said to his team: “Let’s be adults.”

The curfew has also been lifted for the white-ball team, despite no change in the leadership of the one-day and T20 sides.

Led by coach Brendon McCullum and captain Harry Brook, the limited-overs sides will also no longer have to abide by the midnight rule.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Root said: “There’s not going to be a curfew. I don’t think this needs to be a big deal, to be honest.”

A curfew was first put in place during Root’s first spell as Test captain, between 2017 and 2022, and introduced after drinking incidents on the Ashes tour of 2017-18.

It was abolished when Stokes took over as captain in 2022, only to then be reintroduced earlier this year.

Now it has been scrapped again as Root begins his second spell as captain.

McCullum has been replaced as Test coach by fellow New Zealander Stephen Fleming, although he will not be in place for the three matches against Pakistan, with Marcus Trescothick acting as the interim coach.

“My view on curfews is that I don’t think they work and if you want guys to take responsibility on the field, they’ve got to feel like they can be grown adults off it and make good, strong decisions off it,” added Root.

“And that’s for us as a team to manage well, and self-police well, for me and Flem to manage well in many ways.”

The curfew was first imposed on the white-ball team in January for their tour of Sri Lanka and the T20 World Cup that followed.

It came after Brook was punched by a nightclub bouncer in Wellington and opener Ben Duckett was filmed, apparently drunk, on England’s mid-Ashes holiday in Noosa.

The curfew remained in place for the Test team in the home summer, although there was confusion surrounding the terms and how it was communicated.

Stokes and pace bowler Gus Atkinson were out past midnight following the victory over New Zealand at Lord’s, when a member of the England security staff was punched by a Saracens rugby player.

The pair missed the second Test against the Black Caps while the incident was investigated, and were ultimately cleared of wrongdoing. After the returned for the third Test, Stokes announced midway through the match at Trent Bridge it would be his last for England.

Root said: “Ultimately, you’re grown adults, you know what it takes to play for England, you know what your responsibilities are off the field and we need to make sure we don’t find ourselves with any of those situations, off the field, to manage.

“We should be known for how we play our cricket and what we do on the field. We should be on the back page of the papers, and people reading about that sort of stuff. So, that’s as much as I’ve got to say on it.

“Let’s be adults. Look after yourselves, look after each other, create a good, strong culture where you know the right time is to celebrate and enjoy a win, or to have a sensible beer or whatever. And remember you’re playing for England.”

A statement from the England and Wales Cricket Board added: “We have a Test captain and coach, who are looking at how they set team standards and culture.

“As part of this, the curfew will no longer be in place. We will ensure all players have a clear understanding of expectations when they come together for the upcoming Test series.”

The removal of the curfew is a partial U-turn on behavioural guidelines that were issued last month and also recommended no alcohol be consumed on the day immediately before, during or on the day immediately after a match.

If players do choose to drink in the period before, during or after matches, it should not be in public.

They have also been strongly discouraged from drinking in private, in order to aid preparation, recovery and professionalism.

The guidelines apply only to the England senior men’s teams. All other England sides – the women, Lions and age-group teams – have their own rules. England women do not have formal rules on alcohol.

Last week, Stokes denied the England team has a problem with alcohol, but instead said “cricket has a drinking culture and that has not changed”.